Jimmy Pirrie working in Balnacoul Signs Unit
The photograph is courtesy of the family of George Dey. Check under ‘Groups’ and George Dey Collection.
The ‘high tech’ router of 1976 being used to route out a forest sign in the Signs Unit located in the Moray Forest Office complex at Balnacoul, Mosstodloch. It is obvious that the system required considerable skill in setting up the work pieces and in getting the word spacing correct and parallel with the edges. The cutting head moved by hand is guided by professionally cut templates which one assumes required some considerable care and judgement in operating to achieve a high quality finish.
A number of other templates can be seen on the bench behind Jimmy. Treated pine square posts can be seen to the right, waiting to be painted and will be the uprights to hold the completed signs. Note that the sign boards at the time were sawn from West African timber called Iroko which was very durable but more importantly had a very consistent grain and texture resulting in good finishes being achieved with the relatively slow speed and cumbersome router. In time the boards changed to native woods mainly Scots pine particularly with the advent of much faster speed and computer controlled routers and in particular with concerns on sustainable timber procurement.
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Groups: Forest Signs, Forestry in Action, George Dey Forestry Collection